Experts warn about the dangers of snowshoeing in avalanche terrain

The deaths of two people on the weekend in an avalanche near the Lake Louise is raising questions about the safety of snowshoeing when the avalanche risk is high.

The two people were among a group of five snowshoers that ended up triggering an avalanche from below a slope near the Lake Agnus Teahouse.

According to officials, no one in the group had beacons or probes with them at the time.

Albi Sole, who is with the University of Calgary’s outdoors program, suspects that the snowshoers didn’t even realize they were in avalanche terrain.

“I think it’s also good advice for snow shoers unless they are really confident they are not in avalanche terrain, just don’t go out when the avalanche hazard is high,” he explains.

He says that at this time of year it’s easy to trigger an avalanche from below a slope.

“The layer that it’s sliding on is quite deep in the snow pack and it’s a very fragile layer,” Sole explains. “And what happens when you trigger that type of avalanche, is you’re actually breaking that layer down inside and once it’s broken in one spot it breaks everything around it. “

He suggests showshoers bring avalanche equipment regardless of whether there’s a high avalanche risk and that they should be properly trained on how to use it.